Hello,
I realise that most of you haven't yet seen any of the matches from this tournament and so you'll probably not want to comment but most of us who have seen them on Eurosport have been a little disappointed I think it's fair to say.
The major problem is that, although the players clearly have no trouble with them at all, the balls are very hard to distinguish from each other on camera. Unlike the Aramith TV set which is tried and tested. The IPT set uses a pinkish-purple carpet and this manages to cast a glow over the table and the balls etc and make everything look vaguely purple. Very weird! I know the other tables aren't on this carpet but the 2 TV tables are. Also the overhead camera seems to have totally different contrast settings to the main one so when the coverage switches between views it's almost as if you're looking at a different table! The arena looks beautiful but the results aren't half as impressive (at least on Eurosport and they use the same IPT camera crew not one of their own) as the Matchroom event coverage for example. That carpet or floor covering needs to go! At the moment the 3 and 5 and their respective stripes are hard to distinguish from each other and the 6 and the 8 are very hard to pick out too. It's really frustrating when you think a player is out of line but in fact you've just mixed the balls up and they're perfectly in position! In fact the floor and lighting combination even makes the table look like it's made of purpleheart or something!
One more problem with the Eurosport coverage is that they don't give any updates on the scores in the other matches either apart from the other TV table. A scrolling results service at the bottom of the screen would be great. However I'm sure this is a Eurosport-only problem and that other channels will do a much better job of this and so I'm not blaming the IPT obviously!
The only other problem I see is the live scoring on the website. I don't know whether you've all seen the live scoring used for the Eurotour events and the European Championship but that's first class. A huge rolling scoreboard that is updated every couple of minutes at the most and keeps you up to date with all the matches currently being played. Although it's nice to have the extra IPT stats wouldn't it be better to just have a live scoreboard and then have the stats filled in later as they're not so "crucial".
Right I know I've probably opened a can of worms here! I'm not trying to criticise the IPT unfairly- I'm just trying to say how they could improve the spectator/fan experience very easily. Just change that carpet as it plays havoc with the pictures and a real live scoreboard on the website would be a massive improvement in my opinion.
Thanks,
Chris (Chrstc).
I realise that most of you haven't yet seen any of the matches from this tournament and so you'll probably not want to comment but most of us who have seen them on Eurosport have been a little disappointed I think it's fair to say.
The major problem is that, although the players clearly have no trouble with them at all, the balls are very hard to distinguish from each other on camera. Unlike the Aramith TV set which is tried and tested. The IPT set uses a pinkish-purple carpet and this manages to cast a glow over the table and the balls etc and make everything look vaguely purple. Very weird! I know the other tables aren't on this carpet but the 2 TV tables are. Also the overhead camera seems to have totally different contrast settings to the main one so when the coverage switches between views it's almost as if you're looking at a different table! The arena looks beautiful but the results aren't half as impressive (at least on Eurosport and they use the same IPT camera crew not one of their own) as the Matchroom event coverage for example. That carpet or floor covering needs to go! At the moment the 3 and 5 and their respective stripes are hard to distinguish from each other and the 6 and the 8 are very hard to pick out too. It's really frustrating when you think a player is out of line but in fact you've just mixed the balls up and they're perfectly in position! In fact the floor and lighting combination even makes the table look like it's made of purpleheart or something!
One more problem with the Eurosport coverage is that they don't give any updates on the scores in the other matches either apart from the other TV table. A scrolling results service at the bottom of the screen would be great. However I'm sure this is a Eurosport-only problem and that other channels will do a much better job of this and so I'm not blaming the IPT obviously!
The only other problem I see is the live scoring on the website. I don't know whether you've all seen the live scoring used for the Eurotour events and the European Championship but that's first class. A huge rolling scoreboard that is updated every couple of minutes at the most and keeps you up to date with all the matches currently being played. Although it's nice to have the extra IPT stats wouldn't it be better to just have a live scoreboard and then have the stats filled in later as they're not so "crucial".
Right I know I've probably opened a can of worms here! I'm not trying to criticise the IPT unfairly- I'm just trying to say how they could improve the spectator/fan experience very easily. Just change that carpet as it plays havoc with the pictures and a real live scoreboard on the website would be a massive improvement in my opinion.
Thanks,
Chris (Chrstc).
Last edited:
Johnnyt
